My First ThinkPad

We asked our fans to go down memory lane and reminisce on their very first ThinkPad. From the early days to the most recent innovations, diehard ThinkPad lovers tell us which “Bento Box” first stole their heart.

Dmitry Novikov (Russia): "My first ThinkPad was an R52. I bought it in 2005 and it's still working!"

Kelvin Tse (Hong Kong): “I treasure this X60 ThinkPad, which not only provides good firmware updates, but is also a good “cloud computing” partner for exchanging files, and streaming video and music. …”

Jeremy Fenn (United States): “I was given a ThinkPad A23 when I went to school for computers. It was the greatest thing I had seen at the time. I had a bad car accident on I-95 coming back home, flipping the car about seven times, windows were broken out, everything that was IN the car flew OUT, including my laptop. That poor thing must have flown about 100 feet. When a couple of my friends picked me up and let me stay at their house, I checked it. You know, it still worked like it should. …”

Kyouhyung Kim (South Korea): “My first ThinkPad was an X201 tablet. I eventually ended up becoming a ThinkPad collector. My favorite is 701c, but among the ones that are actually usable in the present computing environment, X41t is my favorite; it still keeps me up on my daily uses and has unrivaled build quality, something you can never find from today’s laptops.

Simon Widqvist (Sweden): “My first ThinkPad was T21; I have never owned a laptop with this quality and reliability. This computer has survived many work days and a hardcore smash test in a tree. Truly a top class ThinkPad!”

Adam Kimball (United States): “My first was a 701c but my T23 still runs!"

Jeremy Manzanares (United States): “T23. I used it for a few months and then gave it to my parents as a gift to get on Google. As awesome of a laptop it is, it had really slow specs for demanding, drain-sucking graphics on the Internet. Don’t worry, I ended up building my parents a new dual core laptop with the extended battery and maxed out memory. Although, I doubt they will ever get Internet!”

Richard Klee (United States): “I have had many starting with a used 755CD I bought in 1998, then a 765, 600X, 390E (still functional, running Ubuntu), T23, T41, X41 Tablet, X61 Tablet, T60, and X120.”

Jin Li (Australia): “My first ThinkPad was an X31 that my uncle bought for me as a birthday gift in 2003, which was the start of my long love affair. So far, I have around 50 ThinkPads, and it is growing at about seven machines per year.”

Dommer Laric (United States): "My first and back up laptop when all others fail to work. It has outlasted everything else and still boots Ubuntu 12.04 faster than my dual core desktop! Ladies and gentleman, the business-only release of 1999 through 2011, the IBM 600x."

Nitin Reddy (India): "My first ThinkPad was a 600e. ThinkPads don't die – they keep running so you can turn them on a decade later and think back about old memories."

Eli Turner (United States): "My first ThinkPad was an R51 that I got brand new in 2004, which I used during high school. I still have it along with a T60, T41, and 600, and I have plans to expand my collection."